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Abilities
There are three main types of abilities, Activated, Triggered, and Static. Examples of Static abilities include shroud, first strike, and flying. Activated abilities include any abilities that require tapping or some sort of cost. For example, the card Royal Assasin has an activated ability that reads: "Tap: destroy target tapped creature." Triggered abilities require a specific event to happen, like paying upkeep. Big Abilities These are the biggest abilities in Magic. They are used a lot with many different cards. Although some abilities are used more than others, it's still important to understand all the abilities in Magic. Shroud Shroud is an ability that is easy to understand. This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities. That's simple. If you don't get it, it means that your opponents cannot use cards like Dark Temper and Fiery Fall to destroy creatures with shroud, because they cannot be the target of spells (which means instants and sorcerys). Also, if your opponent have cards like Prodigal Pyromancer or Vithian Stinger, they can't deal any damage to creatures with shroud, because creatures with shroud can't be the target of abilities either. Unfortunately, a creature with shroud can't be targeted by your spells and abilities either, which means you can't use spells like Soul's Might on them. This is where a new ability comes into play. Cards like Plated Slagwurm and Uril, the Miststalker have an ability like shroud, but except you can still target your own creautres, but your opponent can't. First Strike First Strike is surely one of the best abilities. Creatures with first strike have an ability harder to understand than shroud. This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike. This means that if you are attacking with a 2/2 first strike creature like Rockslide Elemental, and your opponent has a 5/2 creature like Summit Apes, since your creature has first strike, it deals it's damage first. Therefore, the Summit Apes would die and your creature would not, because Summit Apes never got to deal its damage. However, if the blocking creature is a 5/3, than Rockslide Elemental deals its 2 damage, but 2 does not eliminate 3, so the 5/3 does not die. Then the 5/3 deals its damage to Rockslide Elemental, killing it. Also, if both creatures have first strike, then they deal their damage as if neither had first strike. Deathtouch Deathtouch is another deadly ability. In fact, it is better than most abilities in Magic. A creature with deathtouch works like this: Creatures dealt damage by this creature are destroyed. You can divide this creature's combat damage among any of the creatures blocking or blocked by it. This means that if you attack with a 1/3 deathtouch, that means that even if they have an 8/8, the 8/8 dies anyway, because all creatures blocking of blocked by a deathtouch creature are destroyed. So with a deathtouch creature, power is usually not important. The great thing about deathtouch is that if two creatures block a creature with deathtouch, they all die if the creature deals at least 1 point of damage to each other creature. One extremely dangerous deathtouch creature is Deadly Recluse, because it is so little to cast. Exalted Exalted is very useful it great numbers, for each creature with exalted boosts up the power of other creatures when they attack alone. A creature with exalted has this text: Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. So if you have a 4/4 creature attacking alone, (which means that no other creatures are attacking,) and you have two creatures with exalted down, that means the 4/4 creature boosts up to a 6/6! When you have many creatures with exalted down, they form a formidable combination. But remember, exalted only works when creatures are attacking alone, so it's not useful for big attacks with many creatures attacking. This is why exalted usually works best in great numbers. Also, exalted only works when creatures are attacking, not blocking. Unearth A creature with unearth enables it to come back to play after it is destroyed, and then it is removed from the game. It was introtuced to Magic in the Alara Block. Here's how unearth works: Return this card from your graveyard to play. It gains haste. Remove it from the game at end of turn or if it would leave play. Unearth only as a sorcery. Of course, you must always pay mana to unearth a card. Different cards cost more or less to unearth. For example, Fatestitcher costs one island to unearth, while Scourge Devil costs four mana to unearth. You can only unearth as a sorcery, so you can only do it during your main phases, and not on your opponents turn. And you can only use the card for one turn. After that, you remove the card from play. This doesn't seem very good but it's actually very good because it's perfect for surprises and very deadly in an Unearth deck. Regenerate Regenerate is a life-saving ability for many cards. Regenerate does what it sounds like. If you have a card that would normally be destroyed, you can "regenerate" it and it doesn't die. This is exactly what regenerate does: The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, it isn't. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat. This may be a bit complicated. This means time the creature would be destroyed, you tap it and it doesn't die. If it is combat, you can regenerate it, and it still deals its damage. You might think that if it attacking then you have to tap the creature, and therefore you can't regenerate it, but this isn't the case. When you are attacking, you can regenerate the creature anyway. When you regenerate when blocking, you still must tap it though. Like Unearth, you usually have to tap mana to regenerate. Most regenerate cards need only one mana to regenerate, but some need two of more. Some cards, like Vagrant Plowbeasts, allow you to regenerate other cards besides themselves. Trample Trample is a really good ability. It is quite simple. It basically means that during combat damage, if a creature has trample, any leftover damage tramples past the opposing creature to the player. If this creature would deal enough damage to it's blockers to destroy them, you may have it deal the rest of its damage to defending player or planeswalker. This means that if you're attacking with a 4/4 trample, and your opponent blocks with a 2/2, the 2/2 would die, but the 4/4 would not. However, since the 4/4 is dealing 4 damage to the 2/2's 2 defense, the 4 "tramples" over the 2, and the damage goes to the player. If the creature was attacking a planeswalker, then the damage goes to the planeswalker. Haste Haste is a simple ability. If you have been around Magic for a while, you will know that creatures have a disability called summoning sickness. This means that they cannot attack or tap on their first turn on the battlefield. For example, cards like Vithian Stinger and Prodigal Pyromancer can't use their ability until the controller's next turn after they come into play. This creature can attack and tap as soon as it comes under your control. This means that creatures with haste don't have summoning sickness. They can attack and tap the instant they come under your control. A good haste card is Cunning Sparkmage. Haste is very useful with abilities like vigilance, making Bull Cerodon and Cerodon Yearling very good cards with haste. Most haste cards are red but there are some black cards with haste. Bull Ceredon and Ceredon Yearling are white and red. Lifelink Lifelink goes best with powerful creature. Lifelink is easy to understand. It means that for any amount of damage it deals, you gain that much life. In other words... Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life. So if you block or attack with a 5/4 creature with lifelink, when they block or let the damage go through, you gain 5 life. So you basically gain life equal to the power, not toughness. Remember that this is not combat damage, so if you made a lifelink card so it could tap and deal 1 damage to target creature or player, you would gain 1 life. So with a powerful 8/8, you would be gaining a tremendous amount of life. If you attack with a 2/2 Lifelink, and the damage hits it player, and if the defending player prevents the damage, the you don't gain any life because you didn't deal any damage. Devour Devour is an ability in the Alara Block. Although the meaning is always the same, the actual ability can vary. Say I cast a 5/5 creature with devour like Gorger Wurm. Once it resolves and starts to come into play, I can sacrifice any number of creatures. Since Gorger Wurm has Devour 1, and I sacrifice 3 creatures, it comes into play with 3 +1/+1 counters on it. If it has Devour 2, it comes into play with 6 counters. Category:Abilities Category:Keyword Abilities Category:Mechanics